Match Report<\/p>\n
The 2021 US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez will face US Open champion Elena Rybakina for the Ningbo title.<\/p>\n
Richard PagliaroOctober 24, 20262 minute read<\/p>\n
By Richard Pagliaro | Saturday, October 24, 2026
Photo credit: Screen Shot<\/p>\n
Leylah Fernandez\u2019s fall rise took another final turn today.<\/p>\n
Fernandez fired 27 winners in a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Marie Bouzkova to fly into her 10th career final in Ningbo.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say it\u2019s a good performance,\u201d Fernandez said. \u201cMaybe not the best tennis, a little bit of too many mistakes. But I mean it\u2019s a semifinal, there\u2019s a lot of nerves. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just super happy I was able to manage it well and play some good tennis when it mattered the most in front of a wonderful crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 30th-ranked Fernandez will face world No. 1 Elena Rybakina in Sunday\u2019s final.<\/p>\n
Defending champion Rybakina smacked six aces defeating Diana Shnaider 6-3, 7-5 in today\u2019s second semifinal. Rybakina improved to 7-0 lifetime in Ningbo.<\/p>\n
After posting three-set wins over Elise Mertens, Aliaksandra Sasnovich and Ekaterina Alexandrova, Fernandez played much of today\u2019s semifinal off the front foot. <\/p>\n
Playing sharp angles and sometimes driving the ball down the line, Fernandez burst out to a 5-2 lead before closing the first set.<\/p>\n
\u201cMarie, she\u2019s a great player. Overall, she\u2019s very solid, backhand, forehand,\u201d Fernandez said. \u201cSo I just tried to use my own strength with variety and also trying to be the one who is the aggressor as much as possible. I\u2019m glad that it worked on important points.\u201d<\/p>\n
A red-hot Fernandez has won 13 of her last 16 matches, including capturing her sixth career championship in Singapore last month.<\/p>\n
The 2021 US Open finalist Fernandez will face reigning US Open champion Rybakina in Sunday\u2019s final.<\/p>\n
The top-seeded Rybakina raised her 2026 record to a WTA-best 52-14. Rybakina is playing for her 15th career title, including her fourth championship of the season after the Australian Open, Stuttgart and US Open titles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m extremely excited to play another final here, to play another final in Ningbo, especially in front of a wonderful crowd,\u201d Fernandez said.<\/p>\n
The 27-year-old Rybakina is 3-2 against Fernandez, including a pulsating 6-7(5), 6-4, 7-6(6) victory in their last meeting in the Stuttgart quarterfinals last spring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Match Report The 2021 US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez will face US Open champion Elena Rybakina for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":939276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-939275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=939275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/939276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}